Blue Raspberry USB Microphone Review

A compact and portable USB microphone, with great recording quality, is all we’ve ever wanted, and finally someone is doing something about this. The brand new Blue Raspberry USB Microphone, from Blue Microphones, has been designed to provide with you with extraordinary audio recording quality. The Raspberry will retail for £169.99, and will be available to purchase from November 1.

Blue Microphones have been the brains behind the Snowball, Yeti & Yeti Pro, to name a few.

Known for their professional audio-recording equipment, the Raspberry is no different with its 24-bit studio-quality sound and built-in dynamic condenser capsule.

The design is very slick, with it’s completely collapsable design and detachable stand, and sports a maroon red leather / silver metal finish. It reminds me of a vintage studio microphone, due to the shape and overall finish.

The Blue Microphones logo can be seen on the front, and also the power LED.

There are both headphone volume and microphone volume controls on the left and right, respectively, as well as a micro USB and 3.5 mm headphone jack on the rear.

The stand sports a few rubber feet to stop the microphone from sliding around, and is also what the microphone folds in to.

Inside the box you receive a micro USB to Lightning cable, for connecting the Raspberry to an iOS device, as well as the standard micro USB to USB cable for desktop use. A microphone stand adapter and soft-suede carry much are also included.

Audio

I’ve used a fair few Blue Microphones products over the past few years, including the Snowflake, Yeti and Yeti Pro – all of which have performed brilliantly.

The Blue Raspberry features a dynamic condenser capsule, that has been developed from the range of high-end microphones that Blue already have to offer, which is also said to prevent distortion and delivers the same clarity as a large-diaphragm studio microphone.

The audio clip below features a short sample of me speaking, firstly using the built-in microphone on my MacBook Pro (which is a fairly decent built-in mic, to be honest) and then secondly using the Blue Raspberry USB Microphone.

As you can hear in the sample above, the first recording, made with my MacBook Pro’s microphone, feels quite empty and quiet despite the fact that I was only about 20 cm away from the microphone.

The second recording, using the Raspberry microphone, sounds much clearer, and has more depth to it than the standard laptop microphone.

The funny thing about the Raspberry microphone recording is that it was actually further away than my laptop when I recorded the audio sample; around 30-40 cm away in fact. Very impressive for a microphone of its size; a true testament to the capabilities of the guys and girls at Blue Microphones.

I also tested the microphone with my acoustic guitar and there was a noticeable different between the microphone on my iPhone and the Raspberry. Both were impressive, however there was less background noise when using the Blue Raspberry and the overall audio quality was definitely a much more pleasurable listening experience. The iPhone did not handle the bassier notes of my guitar as well as the Blue Raspberry, often meaning that the bass sounded slightly distorted when recording purely with my iPhone. The Raspberry solved these issues, and produced a much softer and clearer sound.

Using the Blue Raspberry is incredibly simple, it couldn’t be more “plug and play” if it tried. On my MacBook Pro it was just a case of plugging the microphone in and selecting the microphone on the recording software. When used with the iPhone the Raspberry started working automatically, as soon as I plugged it in.

Verdict

Overall, the Blue Raspberry USB Microphone is both incredibly stylish and provides great audio recording capabilities. It’s certainly not the best I’ve ever heard for a microphone of this price range, however it’s definitely on par, or perhaps slightly better, than its Yeti Pro cousin.

The general feel of the microphone is what struck me the most. It’s both completely solid, and incredibly portable. The ability to remove the stand, and attach the Raspberry to an actual microphone stand (using the included adapter) is also great.

It’s a nice touch to also only have two controls; a headphone volume control and a microphone volume control. No need to set the mic up for specific recordings. Just plug it in and away you go. For the most part it seemed to handle different recording situations incredibly well; and, as stated on the Blue Microphones site, for those of you wanting to record podcasts, do voice overs, YouTube videos or record music, this is definitely a microphone to consider.

The fact that the microphone is so compact and portable is a great selling point. I’m yet to see another microphone that offers exactly what the Blue Raspberry has to offer.

You can pick up a Blue Raspberry USB Microphone from Amazon or Maplin from November 1, for £169.99.